Warning Signs

by digby

Despite the fact that the Democrats gained two seat in the House last night (the winners both endorsing the public option by the way) — totaling three seats since last November — the following question is being asked over and over again on TV this morning:

Andrea Mitchell: is this going to make it much more difficult for you on the hill to build the coalitions for health care in the immediate future — and there may even be a vote this Saturday —do you think that Blue Dogs and moderates are going to be wary of the White House lead on this because they see these warning signs?

The conventional gasbag wisdom is that all the races were referendums on not only Obama but on health care reform and that, win or lose, the Democrats have been warned that they should not pursue it. I’m not surprised, exactly. This is the narrative that they were all signalling yesterday. But it’s still nauseating to see them fulfill their promise of total conformist pap to the letter.

Here’s Axelrod’s answer:

Well I think as the Blue Dogs welcome their new colleague Congressman Owens and remind themselves that he’s the first Democrat to hold that seat in a hundred and forty years, since Ulysses S grant and that he campaigned on the Obama program, I think they have to say, you know what? We’re on to something if we stick to this, if we do the right things, get this economy moving, get healthcare done, energy, clean energy, education reform,. We’re going to have a heckuva story to tell. There have been so many great things already that we can campaign on. I think that this should be reassuring to Democrats and I think it will.

I don’t know if Owens is an official Blue Dog yet, but there’s every chance he will be invited based on his record. But he did say in this campaign that he backed a public option in health care and he should be held to that.

And I guess that John Garamendi is chopped liver. Here in California we replaced the DLC darling Ellen Tauscher with a crusading, liberal insurance reformer. But he’ll be just another member of the progressive caucus and who cares what they think?

By the way, Charlie Cook is vastly relieved that Hoffman didn’t win, because the Republicans would have had a much more difficult time getting elected in the future. We can’t have that.

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